Gerry climbs up to the veranda of our tribal longhouse with a snake bag held out in front of him. “Now don’t get too excited, but I’ve just caught a Kaulbacki,” he says, looking pleased but exhausted from a long hike and a six-metre climb up a tree. We gape, hardly able to believe that we have finally found this rare snake alive after four years of intensive searching.

A north Wales student who is well on the way on her “dream career” path after securing a temporary role at Chester Zoo graduates from Bangor University this week. Stephanie Davies, 27, from Connah’s Quay, Flintshire studied at the University’s School of Biological Sciences for three years and graduated with a first-class BSc Zoology with Herpetology degree.